The Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Group met at the library today, with 13 in attendance, including three visitors. We introduced ourselves and went around the table discussing our present research adventures, and then worked a bit on Pamela's research problem in more depth.
* John F. is working on the 7th generation of his daughter-in-law's English ancestry, and is having fun doing it. He's using Ancestry Library Edition down at the Bonita Public Library in his searches. John also found the Mary and John 1630 Clearinghouse web site and is finding interesting material on some of his colonial ancestors.
* Dick M. mentioned Judy Helton's Adult Ed class on genealogy (Mondays at 2:30 p.m. in Chula Vista) needs new students - has access to Ancestry.com, Family Tree Maker 2009, and Photo software. He had luck using Google Books search at http://books.google.com/
* Pam B. has been finding records for early Wethersfield CT in colonial times - maps, histories, church records, etc. - in order to find more detail ion her ancestors there.
* Dolores N. (a visitor) is coming back to genealogy and finding the Internet genealogy world. She has cousins finding her, and hopes to work on adding to and improving the family history books she wrote years ago.
* Joan L. has family information about Jane Orr's immigration in 1832, at age 16, into Philadelphia, but cannot find a passenger list record. She even knows the ship's name! Since Orr was a married name, and she died in 1917 in Minnesota, she needs to find Jane's maiden name from a death or marriage record.
* Dearl G. ordered books about Irish and Scottish Roots, and is glad that his son is working on his mother's ancestry.
* Pat and Marcia (visitors) are sisters and genealogy newbies, trying to start their research while attempting to find family records back in Iowa. They have
family records for their father's side, but their mother's records are closely held by a cousin in Iowa. The group suggested a road trip to Iowa and sweet-talking the cousin into letting them see and copy the family records of interest. Chocolate, ice cream and pies were recommended as bribes.
* Randy S. briefly discussed his Hoax and Lamphere research, his work on Legacy 7 and FTM 2009, and finding interesting family history for a correspondent. He also passed around a naturalization certificate from 1903 and a five-page Georgia Confederate Pension application.
After going around the table, we asked Pam B. to tell us about her research problem in Connecticut. She has Abiel Sherman born in 1818 in Norwich CT to Benjamin (1787-1853) and Anna (Johnson) Sherman, but cannot connect Benjamin Sherman to an earlier ancestral family. She thinks that his parents are Benjamin and Rebecca (Cole) Shepard (obtained from online family trees), but is uncertain due to a lack of original source records. The group recommended looking for deeds, probate, town and newspaper records in the towns where they lived (since CT is a state where many records are kept by the town rather than a county). She has a subscription to the Godfrey Memorial Library, and is pondering subscribing to NEHGS.
All in all, this was a lively group and the two hours went by quickly. The next CVGS Research Group will be on Wednesday, 11 March at 12 noon at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library Conference Room.
No comments:
Post a Comment